Lavendelhof - 29/03 - 2008

Anxious to see how it will come on within the next few weeks ...

Lavendelhof - 26/03 - 2008

I have a front door and windows as of today ...

Spoon - Paris / France

SPOON PARIS AT MARIGNAN
12 rue de Marignan – 75008 Paris
Tél : 01 40 76 34 44
spoon-paris@hotelmarignan.fr
site internet : www.spoon-restaurants.com

Tuesday, 18th March 2008,

It was kept a secret for me until we arrived literally before the restaurant. I DIDN'T KNOW !!! But I know Alain Ducasse, I even have a cooking book from him. So I could have peace with that ...

We took the chef's menu and a wine arrangement. The chef's menu exists of a combination chosen from the regular menu (dessert menu) of Spoon. What they do is that they don't serve four (we were with four) the same menu's, they give two different menu's so you could even more enjoy the different dishes ...

The amuse (quite simple but very nice)
Crab beignet with toast with a creme fraiche with black pepper
served with a Kirr

The starter
Salted Cod 'Montecato' topped with a soft boiled egg. Served in a kind of spinach cream with foie of fish and in the shell of the sea hedgehog (I needed my dairy too :-) Châtaigne de mer / zee egel) a broth with cocos. Daring combination, excellent taste.
served with a white Stellenbosch - South Africa - 2006

The 2nd starter
4 scallops with Thai rice (fresh coriander and egg) and barbecue fish sauce
served with a white Gros Plain from Spain - 2006

The main course
Prime black Angus beef one sautéed, the other as a spicy tartare with mint / coriander. Served with some fresh cressonette, cereals and olive tapenade.
served with a red Barbera d'asti from Italy

Dessert
Cheesecake with red berries jam, a chestnut cream with raspberry crème and bubble gum ice cream.
served with a Tokay of 2003

A meal to remember. Fantastic restaurant, full, you need to make a reservation if you over 2 persons to be sure of a table. We sat at the high table with leds integrated in the table. It's fancy but not stiff. The staff is excellent, the service is very quick. There are a lot of staff running around, even 2 sommeliers ...

The art of cooking of Alain Ducasse is like in his books, superb, all about flavor of the ingredients, you taste the real flavors. Take the Bubble gum ice cream, not my favorite but the taste is like 100% Bubbleisious (remember the old gum...). Very well done. The raw Angus beef is not like the almost fillet americain you mostly get but real pieces of fresh meat. Daring, tasteful and beautiful presented. A real treat ... :-)

Fauchon - Paris / France

Fauchon Paris
26-30 Place de la Madelaine
75008 Paris - France

18 - 03 - 2008,

What can one say ... this is food raised to art ... All what a foodie needs they have, as well prepares as to prepare, you can get it all. There packaging is amazing, out of this world sometimes. And yes the contents is great as well. Not the cheapest in this world, but I think one of the best ... see the website alone ... enjoy, pay them a visit when you can, they're not only in Paris ...

Geneva 15-03-2008

A weekend of driving, eating, fun, and cars ... what else does one need ... ??? A short overview of some of the cars like Ferrari, Porsche, Wiessman, Spyker, Alfa, Mercedes, Fiat, Honda, Pagani, Lexus ...

Geneva 14-03-2008

This weekend we went for a trip to see the new cars that are coming out / are on the market. But that's not all, after a tight and very hard program made by Marie and Peter we faced some severe climbs up the mountain, had some magnificent views (at the Mont Blanc for instance), saw what can be done with cheese (cheese fondue and raclette (the real way!), drank some Swiss wine, ate chocolate, did a mountain climb by car, visited the local pub, went down to the local brewery, went out eating twice, that all in 2 days ...

It took al place in the area of Sainte Croix.

You can see above the map drawn and below the same map but from satellite. We stayed in Les Rasses, that's about 1200 meters above sea level.


Day I

Cheese fondue we ate in the mountains. After a steep climb of over 250 meters *(thx for the correction Peter ;-) ) we arrived at this cabin. The place is called La Casba and especially open for us at this occasion ... :-) Started of with some kirsh what came back during the cheese fondue. Dip the bread in the alcohol, dip it in the cheese and that's it ... very mighty, very good. Finished with a homemade kind of vanilla flan, no small pieces, just divided the whole thing in 4 pieces ... :-)

This was after the visit to the local wine reseller and the beer brewer. A small local brewer that showed his workplace and let us taste all of his beers. So within 45 minutes we were already 5 beers further ...


Day II

The car show ... what can I say, the pictures speak for themselves (1 blog above!)

Ended with diner, raclette, not on the Dutch way but the real Swiss way. It's as cosy as gourmet, it has a perfect taste (they have up to 20 different kinds of cheese). So you can talk, eat and listen to music in the same time ... there might be an import of cheese and 'Raclette Machines' pretty soon ...
Let the cheese melt under the 'raclette machine' than scrape the melted part on your plate, do it again and again ... :-)


Day III

After breakfast home sweet home ...


Thanks for a lovely weekend (especially the hosts Marie & Peter), it was a full program and loved every minute of it ... waiting on permission to publish a photo of Marie ... :-)

Salon de l'auto Geneve

That's were I'll be this weekend ...

Lavendelhof - 12/03 - 2008

Again a small step ahead ...

Lavendelhof - 08/03-2008

The front view. For the 'fake' last floor (except corner houses) the concrete is placed this week. And the last ceiling are put in place for the houses on the corner.


The view of the garage and above the gardens. The first floor (garden) / roof (garage) concrete 'layers' are placed. It's getting it's shape by the day now :-)


And last Friday all the windows for the different floors came in. Now it start to look like an house. Hopefully they start next week placing them, the sooner the better ... :-)

Snowplanet

Do I need to say more ....
Maybe photo's later ... :-)

Vyne - Amsterdam

Vyne
Prinsengracht 411
1016 HM Amsterdam
Tel : +31 20 3446408

Restaurant week part II, Yes, it’s like New York's Restaurant Week (were it actually has begun). The week for foodies, or foodies to be. How good is that. The deal is this: € 25 for three courses at one of the participating restaurants in Amsterdam (Amsterdam area, Rotterdam and The Hague). For obvious reasons, you want to choose one of the ordinarily restaurants or ans the ones you haven't been to, on the list.

For Vyne it's a little different, it's wine bar, so they made for this week a flight (for those who are not familiar with a flight, it's (mostly) three different kinds of wine, served about half a glass) of your choice wine (white or red) combined with 5 small, fingerfood like tastes for the mouth ... So you get a chance to eat 5 different finger food combined with wine ... mjammie.

We started of with a very nice glass of white wine :
Vouvrey sec, Le Haut Lie, 2006, Loire

For the restaurant week menu we had :

Flight White wines
Regaleali Bianco, Inzolia, 2007, Sicilie
Verdejo Palacio de Bornos, Rueda, 2007, Spain
Elementos, Chardonnay Viognier, 2006, Argentinie

Flight Red Wines
Carmen, Pinot Noir, 2006, Chili
Le Volte, Toscane, 2006, Italy
Three Cape Ladies, Warwick, 2004, South Africa

Fingerfood
Smoked wild salmon with fresh apple and cressonette
Mash of peas with bacon and veal ragout
Bisque
Pizza with italian cheese and rucola
Spinach bread with Serano and Parmesan foam


It was a small delight, the bisque was not so good but the rest was perfect. Choise of wines in combination with the food was perfect.

Vyne is seen as the sister of Envy (also on this blog) but the food as the center has been replaced by wine. They looked pretty good to Robert's Bubbles and Wines. Actually it's almost the same. They invested a bit more and that shows in the giant cooling (foto to the right). It's a lovely place, the furniture is not too well chosen for spending an entire evening, and maybe that's why they chose it ... The presentation of the wine is divine as you can see. The knowledge of the people serving is very well. They only forgot twice an order and that's a pity of course ...

Alway's wanted to try that excellent wine, take a look, for superb service and superb wines as well, of course perfect fingerfood as well, Robert is still favorite for me !

website : Vyne

Dorrius - Amsterdam

Restaurant Dorrius
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 5
1012 RC Amsterdam
Tel : +31 20 4202224

Restaurant week has begun ... :-) Yes, it’s like New York's Restaurant Week (were it actually has begun). The week for foodies, or foodies to be. How good is that. The deal is this: € 25 for three courses at one of the participating restaurants in Amsterdam (Amsterdam area, Rotterdam and The Hague). For obvious reasons, you want to choose one of the ordinarily restaurants or ans the ones you haven't been to, on the list.

Restaurant Dorrius is on my list for a while since I haven't eaten here in ages, it's not even on my blog !!! If you want to taste the real Old Dutch culinary delights, you should pay a visit to restaurant Dorrius. You will get to know the delicious Dutch cuisine, which has made our restaurant world-famous since 1890, in a typically Old Dutch atmosphere. You can try all kind of dishes, varying from tasty hotchpotch to exclusive oysters from Zeeland, from the famous Dorrius cheese souffles to traditional real Dutch marrow fat peas, based on the original Dorrius recipe.

Starter :
Carpaccio (two kinds, cow and veal), truffle dressing, bacon strips and pine nuts

Main :
Hunting dish - Dorrius recipe, with mash, home made red cabbage, and home made apple-sauce

Dessert :
Almond parfait with almond cookie and raspberry sauce

It was a real treat like my memory remembered. The Carpaccio was not too cold, the meat was perfect, not to overdone with the truffle dressing, little bit few bacon bits. The salad in the middle had a perfect dressing, spicing up the salad and matching the carpaccio. The main dish was wonderful, a real 'grandmothers' recipe. As well as the side dishes. The dessert was great, home made parfait, delicious. A real treat ...!

Lot of staff (advantage to be a part of an hotel ...) very friendly and very informative.



Website : Dorrius

Lavendelhof - 04/03-2008

The entrance to the garage and the first frontdoors have been placed .... so probably I'll have a door this week too :-)

Brasserie Den Engel - Baarle Nassau

Brasserie Den Engel
Singel 3
5111 CD Baarle-Nassau

In the city were you cross the border many times back and forth and you don't even know it. This small place lies part in the Netherlands and part in Belgium. Since I need to look for some 'stuff' for my new home I came across here.

This place must be good. Surrounded by many other cafe's and restaurants it was the only one that was completely full. since it was snack time just went for a small dish. The shrimp croquettes were excellent.Very good tast rich in flavour and a superb filling. Try them !

website : Brasserie Den Engel